A Pescie Problem

On the unofficial life list of things to do, I've recently included "Attempt to like fish". The official list is 40 items long and can be found on www.next12.blogspot.com but that list has to be accomplished by the time I'm 40. The unofficial list is merely stuff I'd really like to do, but I'm not as passionate about making them happen. One for instance, was attend Mardi Gras. And, completely on accident, last year I did. One is to see an alligator or crocodile live, outside a zoo or contained area. Try as I might while in Orlando, heading out on alligator hunts, I still have not accomplished it.

Now there is this fish thing. I hate fish. I hate seafood of every kind. I attended sushi night for years with my girls and although I always would try the new stuff they ordered, in the end, stuck to veggie rolls. If it's not the smell, it's the texture. And you can tell yourself as much as you would like, fresh fish doesn't smell. I know the truth. It does. I remember camping trips as a child, watching my uncle skin fish in the cleaning area and I know, that even still alive, those fish stink.

Occasionally as a kid I could eat a tuna sandwich if topped with enough pickles and onions, but I have grown older and my aversion to mushy foods that aren't a potato have grown stronger as well, so mayonnaise plus fish is even more disgusting, not less. The flavor of fried calamari and small popcorn shrimp is okay, but not great; I feel with the calamari that I'm eating a fried gummy bear and something about that is oddly wrong.

I do, on a side note, like raw oysters. This new discovery was a pleasant one. Once topped with the sauces they taste like a bloody mary, which I love and have the texture of butter. Yum. Ugly? Yes. Tasty. Yes.

So what to do? I gave the pesce loving fiance a recipe I tore from my Bon Appetit. It's fish sticks with a homemade tarter sauce. As I figure, step number one in loving fish is to cover up the flavor with a good homemade sauce. We shall see. I've dedicated the 30th birthday to this pursuit with two exceptions. "No anchovies and no scallops." "No scallops?!" Yuck. I can't. I just can't.